PREPARE TO FEEL envious.
Eddie O’Mahony is passionate about Ireland football shirts and his collection is extremely impressive, as you can see from the video below which has been produced by Ireland’s sponsors, Three, ahead of Saturday’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Georgia.
He convinced his wife to use money they had set aside to paint their home to instead buy the makeshift shirt Richard Dunne wore against Russia in Moscow in 2011.
However, the pièce de résistance is an away shirt from the 2002 World Cup which was due to be worn by Roy Keane until things went awry in Saipan. O’Mahony recently had the shirt signed by the current Republic of Ireland assistant manager.
“Just before a recent home game, I knew the team would be at their base in Malahide,” he explains. “I went there nice and early. I said, ‘Mr Keane, is there any chance you could sign my shirt for me?’
“He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘if it’s my shirt, how do you have it?’ But he gave me one of those cheeky smiles and signed it for me.”
We’d gladly put our hands up to paint the O’Mahony household in exchange for a closer look at this collection of wonderful Irish football memorabilia.
“The Ireland jersey means everything to me,” O’Mahony says. “I’ll never be a player, but it’s the next best thing.”
